THE MUNSTERS KOACH & DRAG-U-LA

Munster KoachFrom WikipediaThe Munster Koach is the family car that was used in the television series, The Munsters. The show's producers contracted George Barris to provide the Koach. Barris paid Tom Daniel $200[1] to design the car, and had it built at Barris Kustoms, first by Tex Smith, but finished by Dick Dean, his shop foreman at the time. The Munster Koach appeared in over twenty episodes throughout the series' two-year run, and was also seen in Munster, Go Home! using different wheels. Tom Daniel's original drawing of the Munster Koach had it supercharged with a hood scoop and thin, round disc lights. George Barris chose the ten-carburetor setup with the ten air horns and lantern lights.

Only one Koach was made for the television series and feature film. It was made from three Ford Model T bodies and is 18 feet long. The 133-inch frame was made by hand, as were the brass radiator and fenders. It has "blood red" interior and Gloss Black Pearl paint. It took 500 hours to hand form the ornate rolled steel scrollwork. The front end had a dropped axle, split radius rods and T springs. Its design featured a custom hearse body.

AMT produced a plastic model kit of the car during the series run. It has been reissued several times since. Johnny Lightning has also produced a 1/64th scale die-cast model of the car.

An unauthorized reproduction Koach was built on speculation and presented to George Barris, but Barris declined to buy it. Tubbs Johnson, Barris' paint man, purchased the unauthorized Koach and later sold it to Jay Orhbach. Barris auctioned off the original Munster Koach in 1982 with oversized gas lights and different tires and wheels. In 1984, George Barris wanted a Munster Koach for the Hollywood Christmas Parade. He had Dick Dean build a second authorized Munster Koach. Dick Dean's son, Keith Dean, helped with this build. This Koach was restored in the summer of 2011 with new black pearl paint, pie crust cheater slicks, new brass lantern lights, torque thrust mag wheels, smaller skull radiator cap, and had the dummy crank lever removed and sealed. They did not have Bobby Barr Headers, so there is a wide opening where those headers were on the original.

There were five walnut blocks between the spokes of the mag wheels in rear. The rear slicks were Firestone eleven-inch pie crust slicks. The Astro mag wheels were painted blood red just on the outside of the five spokes. There was no skull radiator cap on the Munster Koach in the 1960s. Only later did the Munster Koach get a skull cap. Both reproduction cars have been restored, but the original has not.

Interestingly, series star Fred Gwynne never sat in the seat to drive the Munster Koach. Instead, he sat on the floor on the ermine-fur rugs. During the time of the television series there was a song released as a single by Decca, called "Here Comes the Munster Koach".

The engine was a 289 cubic-inch Ford V8. Originally configured for installation in an AC Cobra, it was built with Jahns high compression pistons, 10 chrome plated Stromberg carburetors, an Isky cam, and had a set of Bobby Barr racing headers. It has a four speed manual transmission.

DRAG-U-LAFrom WikipediaDRAG-U-LA, along with the Munster Koach, was one of two cars designed by Tom Daniel while working for George Barris and Barris Kustom Industries for the television show The Munsters.

The fiberglass body of DRAG-U-LA was built from a real fiberglass coffin that Richard "Korky" Korkes was able to purchase from a funeral home in North Hollywood. Korky Korkes stated in 2013, it was illegal to sell a coffin without a death certificate. Korky made a deal with the funeral director, paid in cash, and it was agreed the coffin would be left outside the rear door of the funeral parlor where the Barris crew would collect it after dark.

It featured a 350HP, 289CI Ford Mustang V-8 engine, with a four-speed stick shift. It had two four-barrel carburetors[citation needed] mounted on a Mickey Thompson Ram-Thrust manifold.

The rear tires were 10.50-inch Firestone racing slicks, mounted on custom 10-inch Rader aluminum and steel wheels. Each hubcap was decorated with a large silver spider. The front tires were 4-inch Italian tires on Speedsport English buggy wire wheels. To extend the Gothic motif further, Barris installed four Zoomie style organ pipes on each side of the car in lieu of a standard exhaust pipe, and mounted antique lamps on the front and rear.

The front of the vehicle sported a marble gravestone — supposedly Grandpa Munster's license plate "from the Old Country" — with the inscription: "Born 1367, Died ?". A "hidden" radiator was topped with a small golden casket. The driver sat in the rear of the vehicle behind the engine, under a plastic bubble.

There were some subtle changes or variations made to the automobile, such as tires, etc., generally for different aspects of filming for the movie Munster, Go Home! or for the television series.

This car was sold at the closeout auction of the Chicago Historical Antique Automobile Museum in Highland Park, Illinois, in 1985.

The original 1966 car was housed in Planet Hollywood in Atlantic City, New Jersey, where it hung from the ceiling.[citation needed] This Planet Hollywood location is now closed, according to Planet Hollywood's Web site. The car is now housed at the Volo Auto Museum in the town of Volo, Illinois. The museum had the car completely restored in 2011.

While the car came from George Barris' shop, the car was constructed by Richard "Korky" Korkes and others who worked under Korky's direction while he managed the Barris facility.

On The Munsters television series the car was created by Grandpa Munster so he could win back The Munster Koach, which Herman had lost in a drag race in the episode Hot Rod Herman.

The 1966 movie Munster, Go Home features an alternate origin. After Herman crashes the Munster Koach, Grandpa builds the Drag-u-la, so Herman can drive it in a cross-country automobile race.